WASHINGTON – California-based companies Quicksort Inc., Quicksort LA Inc. and Quicksort Sacramento Inc. have agreed to pay the United States $4.2 million to settle allegations that Quicksort violated the False Claims Act by falsely representing the level to which it had pre-sorted mailings in order to obtain discounted postage rates from the U.S. Postal Service, the Justice Department announced today.
The U.S. Postal Service offers lower postage rates to mailers who automate and sort their mail by zip code because these steps save the Postal Service time and money. Mailers use the services of businesses such as Quicksort that combine the mail of many customers and pre-sort it in order to qualify for the pre-sort discounts. After processing customers’ mail, these pre-sort businesses present the mail to the Postal Service for mailing.
The settlement resolves allegations that the Quicksort companies misrepresented the pre-sort level of mail they submitted to the U.S. Postal Service at various times in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
“Making false claims to obtain discounted postage rates is dishonest, and such conduct interferes with the Postal Service’s effort to swiftly and accurately deliver the mail,” said Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice. “We will hold businesses accountable for underpaying for postage and will ensure that taxpayer funds are protected from fraud and abuse.”
“The Postal Service enters into mailing agreements with entities such as QuickSort to help ensure the US mail is collected, prepared, and delivered as cost effectively and efficiently as possible,” said Benjamin B. Wagner, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California. “When a pre-sort business overstates the level of presorting it has performed, the Postal Service not only pays for services not rendered, but then also has to incur the costs of sorting the mail to its proper ZIP Code. The False Claims Act provides a powerful remedy when this activity occurs.”
“The Postal Inspection Service investigates these types of cases to not only protect the Postal Service but also protect the mailing community from those who seek to gain an unfair competitive advantage,” stated Postal Inspector-in-Charge Adam P. Behnen.
The settlement was reached by the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Justice Department’s Civil Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service investigated the matter.
bozoshoes is “dead on” about this issue. Paying big mailers over and above what it costs the USPS to do the same work has been a well known problem within the postal community by all but management for some time. Former APWU head Bill Burrus has famously told the top USPS honchos that his members (postal clerks) would gladly perform the same functions the large mailers are doing for less than they are being paid now, but was met with silence from the brain dead postal brass. Federal law REQUIRES uniform postal rates. No matter where you are mailing to or from, “uniform rates” means that the cost should be the same for your letter to your grandma as it is for the commercial mailing you receive. By paying big mailers EXCESSIVE workshare-discounts, the USPS is VIOLATING Federal law—period—but nothing has been done about it.
I hope Gene del Polito, president of the Association of Postal Commerce, whose articles I have been following for some years as webmaster of a local postal web site finally realizes that all the hard work and “superior intellect” he has put in over the years that has enabled him to build his personal wealth and prestige as a direct mail guru at the expense of the average American citizen who lives in a small town and wants to mail a letter or package to some loved one without having to drive to a larger city because the small office doesn’t exist anymore is happy. All those articles, Gene, very persuasive—and all the lobbying on the USPS for discounted postage for your big mailers—good job, Gene. Obviously you had an advantage over our PMG Potter that had more to do with your cojones than with any concern for what this all might mean for the average American. You would never have gotten to Runyon or even Frank to violate federal law for your agenda and I can’t figure out why you could do so with Potter. Wait. Didn’t Potter and Burrus just up and quit? Are you and Jack and Bill retiring, buying a condo together on the Baja peninsula and…no that’s just too much to imagine…I’m no conspiracy theorist, but as a 35-year veteran of the postal service, I have acquired a certain perspective and I think your short-sighted leadership of the big mailers has been a significant factor along with our recent weak leadership in the last ten years for our and your current predicament.
Guess What! This is the tip of the iceberg. Mail comes into offices sorted backwards and gets a presort discount! Can you imagine! Not only do the mailers get a discount for “pre-sorting” so they (The Post Office) lose on the revenue side, On the cost side, you have postal workers in the plant breaking bundles so they can get their volume numbers to justify their volume numbers, and to top it off, many presorted bundles come into the offices and have to be cased because they a sorted BACKWARDS!! DUH!! I tell my boss every time this happens, but guess what? Nothing has been changed going on at least ten years now. Where is the OIG, The Big Money is being STOLEN by the Mailers and their Postal Management Cronies. Keep blaming the carriers and mailhandlers and clerks, while ignoring the REAL PROBLEM!